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The Enforcement Directorate told the Supreme Court on Thursday that the West Bengal government's "interference and obstruction", including by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in its probe and search operation at the I-PAC office and its chief's residence reflects a very shocking pattern. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, told a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Vipul Pancholi that in the past also, whenever statutory authorities exercised statutory power, Banerjee barged in and interfered. "It reflects a very shocking pattern," Mehta said while contending that this will only encourage such acts, and the central forces will be demoralised. "The states will feel they can barge in, commit theft, and then sit on a dharna. Let an example be set; officers who were explicitly present there should be suspended," the solicitor general said. The ED's plea in the apex court follows events from January 8, when ED's officials faced obstructions during the probe ...
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday disposed of the TMC's petition praying for protection of its data, saying the ED has informed that it has not seized anything from I-PAC director Pratik Jain's office and home during its raids last week. TMC had moved the court seeking an order for preservation of personal and political data that may have been seized by the ED during its raids on these two premises on January 8. Representing the ED, additional solicitor general SV Raju stated before the court that the agency has not seized anything from these two premises. Disposing of the TMC's petition, Justice Suvra Ghosh observed that in view of the submissions made by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Union of India, nothing further remains to be dealt with in the present petition by the ruling party in West Bengal. Justice Ghosh also adjourned a petition by the ED before it seeking a CBI probe into the events of January 8, when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had gone to the politica
The ED on Wednesday told the Calcutta High Court that petitions filed by it and the TMC in connection with last week's searches at the residence and office of political consultancy firm director Pratik Jain be adjourned as the agency has moved the Supreme Court on the issue. Trinamool Congress' counsel Menaka Guruswamy submitted that the party was only seeking protection of its data. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's lawyer Kalyan Banerjee objected to the Enforcement Directorate's plea for adjournment. The CM has been made a party by the central probe agency in its petition before the high court. Representing the ED, additional solicitor general SV Raju stated before the bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh that the agency seeks adjournment of the matters at the high court as it has filed a petition on the same issue before the Supreme Court. He said that when a matter is pending before the apex court, a high court should not hear it.
The Enforcement Directorate has approached the Supreme Court alleging interference and obstruction by the West Bengal government, including by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in its probe and search operation at the I-PAC office and premises of its director Pratik Jain in connection with the coal pilferage scam. The West Bengal government has also filed a caveat in the top court seeking that no order should be passed without hearing it in connection with Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids against political consultancy firm I-PAC. A caveat is filed by a litigant in high courts and the Supreme Court to ensure that no adverse order is passed against it without it being heard. The ED has also alleged that the chief minister entered the raid sites and took away "key" evidence, including physical documents and electronic devices from the premises of I-PAC and obstructed and interfered with the investigation in the case. The probe agency further claimed in its plea that the chief minister
The Enforcement Directorate is set to register a money laundering case to probe alleged irregularities worth Rs 2,000 crore in the implementation of the mid-day meal scheme in Rajasthan under the previous Congress government, official sources said on Saturday. The Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on January 7 filed an FIR in the case and named 21 accused, including certain retired officials of the Rajasthan Cooperative Consumer Federation Ltd. (CONFED), some private persons and firms under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, Indian Penal Code and the Rajasthan Transparency in Public Procurement Act. The 22-page FIR reviewed by PTI states that the case emerges from a reference sent by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in 2024 into the alleged irregularities and corruption in providing dry ration packets containing pulses, cooking oil and spices to eligible schoolchildren in the state. More than 3 crore students studying in classes 1-8 were stated to have been .
Kolkata Police on Saturday started the process of identifying Enforcement Directorate officials allegedly involved in the theft of documents from the residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain and the consultancy firm's office here, after an FIR was filed, a senior officer said. Police are also trying to identify the central agency personnel present at both locations during the operation, he said. On Saturday morning, officers from Shakespeare Sarani Police Station visited Jain's residence and collected CCTV footage and DVR recordings, he said. "Statements of household staff and security personnel were also recorded. Once identification is complete, notices will be issued to the accused," the officer said. TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Friday lodged two police complaints against the ED in connection with the agency's raids at the office of I-PAC and the residence of Prateek Jain. Based on the complaints, the Kolkata and Bidhannagar Police filed FIRs and initiated an ...
The West Bengal government has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court seeking that no order should be passed without hearing it in connection with Enforcement Directorate raids against political consultancy firm I-PAC. A caveat is filed by a litigant in the high courts and the Supreme Court to ensure that no adverse order is passed against it without it being heard. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted searches on the premises of I-PAC and its director Pratik Jain in Kolkata as part of a money laundering probe into an alleged multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam. According to the agency, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee entered the raid sites and took away "key" evidence, including physical documents and electronic devices. Banerjee has accused the central agency of overreach. The ED on Friday approached the Calcutta High Court, seeking a CBI probe against Banerjee, alleging that she, with the aid of the police, took away incriminating documents from the
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has approached the Calcutta High Court, seeking a CBI investigation into the role of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, senior police officials and others for allegedly obstructing its raids in Kolkata against political consultancy firm I-PAC and its director. PTI has reviewed the writ petition of the federal probe agency, where it has also sought "immediate seizure, sealing, forensic preservation, and restoration to lawful custody of the ED" all digital devices, electronic records, storage media, and documents "illegally and forcibly" taken away from the search premises. The high court is expected to hear the petition on Friday. The search was mounted on Thursday at the Salt Lake office of I-PAC and its founder and one of the directors Pratik Gandhi as part of an alleged coal scam-linked money laundering case. Some other locations in the state and Delhi were also raided. The ED had alleged in a press statement on Thursday that Banerjee ...
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday described West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a "tigress", saying the TMC chief is "very brave" and will not surrender. Mufti was reacting to the Thursday's ED searches at the office of the political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its director Pratik Jain in Kolkata. The action ignited high drama with the West Bengal chief minister storming at the raid site, alleging that the central agency was trying to seize the TMC's sensitive data ahead of the state polls. Mufti said that while such raids by ED or other investigative agencies has become a normal thing in Jammu and Kashmir, "the whole country is tasting it now". "When Article 370 was revoked, when raids took place and when three CMs were put behind bars, majority of political parties maintained silence. Now, that is being witnessed across the country," she added, referring to the detention of herself, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah in the wake of the abrogation of .
The TMC on Friday moved the Calcutta High Court against the ED raids at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its chief here, seeking restraint on misuse and dissemination of documents seized during the search operations. The ruling party in West Bengal, in its petition, alleged that the ED seized sensitive and confidential political data meant for the TMC's use in the upcoming assembly elections, in a display of arbitrary, mala fide, and colourable exercise of power. PTI has accessed the synopsis of the petition, which refers to the probe agency's search and seizure operations under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, on January 8. The ED maintained that the operations were part of a probe into an alleged multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam. The petitioner submits that the seized articles and electronic data consist of confidential political data/information/documents relating to campaign strategy, internal assessments, resear
A day after the ED conducted searches at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its director Pratik Jain in Kolkata, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Friday said federalism is at ED's mercy and asserted that only the Supreme Court can rein in the probe agency. Sibal's remarks came after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) action in West Bengal ignited high drama, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee unexpectedly storming into the sites during raids, alleging that the central agency was trying to seize the TMC's sensitive data ahead of the high-stakes state polls. The ED, which maintained that the searches were part of a money laundering probe into an alleged multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam, accused Banerjee of obstructing a lawful investigation and claimed that she and the state police forcibly removed "key evidence" during the raids. In a post on X, Sibal said, "Only Supreme Court can rein in ED. Every opposition state, every significant opposition leade
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that ED officials were attempting to seize TMC's hard disks, internal documents and sensitive organisational data during a search operation at the residence of I-PAC chief Prateek Jain here. She described the raid at the residence of Jain as politically motivated and unconstitutional. I-PAC also looks after the IT cell of the Trinamool Congress. Banerjee made the allegations after emerging from Jain's Loudon Street residence here, where searches have been underway since Thursday morning. Search operations were also being conducted at the office of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), the consultancy firm Jain heads. Claiming that the ED was trying to access the ruling party's internal strategy, candidate lists and confidential digital material, Banerjee said such information had no link to any financial probe. They are trying to take our party's hard disk, strategy and plans. Is it the duty of the ED to coll
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has attached properties worth Rs 2.67 crore as part of a money laundering investigation against a Guwahati-based company and its promoter in a railway freight charges and GST "evasion" case. A four-storey commercial building and another immovable property located in Gurugram (Haryana) of companies named Vinayak Logistics India, Vinayak Logistics and their owner and director, Pravesh Kabra, have been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED case stems from a chargesheet filed by the CBI in a case where it was alleged that the accused "wilfully" misdeclared high-freight commodities such as marble powder, waste marble powder and dolomite as low-freight goods like alum powder and putty, the federal probe agency said in a statement. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR in this case in August 2023. The accused unlawfully reduced their cargo liability and this "calculated ...
After the ED questioned him and his wife Saritha in connection with a money laundering probe, actor Jayasurya said on Friday that all his financial transactions were legal. Jayasurya and his wife were questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of an investigation into an online investment scheme called 'Save Box', allegedly operated by Swathi Rahim, who faces many cheating cases. The ED was probing alleged money laundering linked to the scheme and has found financial transactions involving Jayasurya, who was roped in as a brand ambassador. "How can we guess what people who approach us for advertisements will do in the future? Jayasurya said in a post on his Instagram page. Stating that he had only entered into legitimate transactions, the actor said, "I am an ordinary, responsible citizen who followed all rules and paid taxes to the government exchequer". Jayasurya said he first appeared before the ED on December 24 a